Iām sorry for always posting rather simple questions that most Catholics already know the answer to, but I lack the knowledge and experience when it comes to matters of your faith. Please correct me if I happen to misperceive any information, and do not be offended if I have made a mistake in interpreting your theology.
Explain to me how āThe Trinityā is not polytheistic. I came across this in a discussion with a German Muslim when we were discussing Isa (Jesus). He told me ābecause G-d is without equal and is omnipotent, how can He be subsetted into three distinct but equally powerful factions?ā This stuck with me. Throughout my life, I have educated that G-d is without partner or equal, and that He is the one and only god. To me, the concept of the Trinity is almost Hindu in practice.
My question is āhow do Catholics circumnavigate the Trinity towards being monotheistic without lessening the might of G-d?ā
Sincerely,
Your Jewish Neighbor
To me, the simplest way to understand this is to get back to Genesis, which tells us weāre made in Godās image. This means, if God is a trinity, weāll have a trinitarian nature too.
And we do. We have body, mind, and spirit. and unless all three are operating and functional, then weāre not fully human.
But they are so closely integrated, weāre not aware of our trinitarian. When I say āIā, thatās what I mean - me - even if I am this trinitarian nature in reality. And so are you, and so is your Moslem neighbour.
I know for a fact soul and mind can operate without the body, because I had the peculiar experience of my (very cruel) father turning up the night in my bedroom he died. He started with an apology for his cruelty, we argued and talked, and at the end he gave this terrifying scream and disappeared.
But his body was dead. Yet we were talking (hence he had a mind), and he had a spirit, as I still remember being able to see him, but also see through him if I wanted to. I had this old chipboard bookcase against the far wall, and I still remember being able to see it through him if I wanted to focus on it. I suppose it was bit like looking at smoke and flames from a camp fire - you can look at the flames and smoke themselves, or you can look through them and see the rest of your mates sitting on the other side.
Weāre a trinity, and weāre made in Godās image.
The triinitarian revelation comes through Christ - the voice addressing the crowd at His baptism - āThis is my Son, with whom I am well pleasedā. Then later, āThe Father and I are oneā. Then the transfiguration - āThis is my Son. Listen to Him.ā Then Pentecost, āI will send you the Holy Spirit.ā And so on. And at Pentecost the Holy Spirit came visibly, and the church has been going ever since.
Do we understand it? Not a bit. But then I donāt know how God made the universe out of nothing either.
We accept the Trinity by faith, as revealed in the revelation of Jesus Christ, and through Jesus Christ. But then, do you understand your own Trinitarian nature, and how the three components that comprise you work so closely together that you are only aware of being āIā?
I doubt it - if youāre like me, you wouldnāt understand how your own brain works, let alone how it appears to be āmindā while youāre still alive, but when you die, you take your āmindā and memories with you, as my father did.
Not that it did him much good - I still remember the absolutely terrifying scream just before he disappeared again.
